Weekly or Monthly Cash

Lula-Hula

Hi,

this is a dilemma I've been working on for the last year & think I've now just about sussed it :rolleyes:.

I buy a months worth of household & toiletries ( loo rolls, bin bags, light bulbs, washing powder, shampoo etc) at the beginning of the month & then do my grocery shopping on a weekly basis. For petrol I filled up when I had spare cash & then put aside £10 a week so can then refill when necessary, the advice on here is to top up every week rather than once a month. For myself & 1 DD (age 10 & having packed lunches) I spend about £35 a week on groceries & about £25 a month of houshehold items. If I was a more enthusiastic cook with a larger freezer I could cut this down, but I admit to being a lazy moose ... so sue me :D

If your parents can travel perhaps they would like to come visit you once a week, would save you on fuel & give them an evening out too.

Arwen

I am also a lazy @rse sometimes. I buy jars and packets when they are on special offer/BOGOF and keep them for those lazy moments.

Stopped doing that now.Cheapy meal I had last night was meatballs from Iceland (they are £1 or £1.50) a pack, made a tomato sauce using tin of tomatoes,dried basic,onion,garlic and 2 dried chillis (take the chillis out after cooking), and served with spaghetti and even my DH raved about it, and he is a mega fussy eater.Took about 20/30 mins to cook.

One way I have found to get round the laziness, especially when you have come home from work, is DON'T take your coat off.That is fatal.Start cooking your meal right away.While your dinner is cooking, do whatever chores need to be done (still with coat on), and make sure you finish your chores in time to serve up.

Coat off,dinner served,tidy house and you can plonk your bum on sofa for rest of night (or in front of PC).Result.:rotfl:

chappers

I would say if you are probably better off budgeting according to when your income comes in ie if income monthly then budget monthly.
One big trip to the supermarket will save on petrol rather than going every week.
As has been suggested why not set up a joint account into which every month you both pay in half of the shopping, bills, payments to debts etc

That way you know that everything is covered and the money left in your account is for you to cover everything else, then you can deal with that how best suits you whether that is taking it all out in one go, weekly or as you need it.
With regards to fuel , personally I would fill up once a month and then you can forget that too and any money you have left is yours to spend as you wish/need.

Years ago when i was budgeting hard i used to use a method similar to Martins piggy banking method but within my bank account.
each month I would workout waht was going out inmonthly bills and the remainder I would allocate into catorgories eg food, petrol, entertainment etc
I put each of these into a colomn of a spread sheet and every couple of days I would go through my reciepts putting my spending into the relevant colomn giving me a running total of what I had left to spend on each. It actually became a bit of a game trying to keep some money for each left at the end of the month and sometimes there would be money left to carry over to the next month, which would allow for treats or unexpected purchases, sometimes surpluses would build up and could be transfered between pots.
Budgeting is not so much about only allowing your self a certain amount of money each week but more about keeping records and track of what you are spending and what you have left.

One thing I would say is make sure you are allowing yourself a realistic amount of money each week, there is nothing more depressing than beating yourself up or going without essentials just because your £60 has run out and there is still money available.

Anyway well done you seem to be doing ok particularly managing on £60 pw I know I couldn't.

Katy83

Thanks for all the input on this everyone.

I've had a good chat with OH and we've decided what we are going to do is a big stock-up shop on payday, which we will go halves on. Then the rest of the month should just need top-ups, which we will take it in turns to buy.

I've also applied to RBS for a basic bank account so I can use it for the grocery money, think it is a better way of handling it than taking the £60/week.

Anything left over at the end of the month can go straight off the credit card.

Also, we usually do our shopping on a Sunday, so I am going to budget to start the new week on Sundays, think that will be more manageable.

Going to try it for November anyway and see how it goes, xx

MoneySavingKate

hettiecarro wrote: »

Hi

I've also got my own little challenge of not spending ALL of the grocery money - and take it out in cash and keep it in a jar where it is visible - nothing controls my spending better than not seeing a 'note' in my jar!
I Know- it's a bit late for the miser to come out in me now! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Hugs x

I love this! Will have to give it a try. Someone gave me a cupcake shaped jar for my birthday and I have been wondering what to do with it!